I don’t read comic books. I do, however, follow dozens of Japanese manga series. American comics are all about the “super heroes,” and most of them are limited to characters that have been in existence for something like 50 years or more. Even when you do get a really creative artist or writer, that person is usually tasked with teaching a very old dog (like Batman or Superman) new tricks. While there are certainly common tropes in manga (like series dealing with fighting robots), I think there is much more variety and creativity in manga than in comics. Some of my favorites are ones that I don’t think would ever make it in the United States.

For example, Silver Spoon (from Arakawa Hiromu, the female mangaka who also created Fullmetal Alchemist) depicts the school life of Hachiken Yugo, a student from Sapporo who enrolled in an agricultural high school in order to get away from his strict father:http://www.batoto.net/comic/_/comics/silver-spoon-r496

Otoyomegatari by Mori Kaoru loosely revolves around the life of Amira, a 20-year-old woman in 19th-century central Asia (I would guess what is now Uzbekistan) and her new husband Karluk, who is eight years younger than she is:(Warning: rare NSFW images)http://www.batoto.net/comic/_/comics/ot ... tari-r3409

I can’t imagine DC or Marvel publishing a comic about livestock farming or daily life in historical Asia.

I came home from work yesterday and saw that my DVR had picked up a keyword and recorded all three hours of it. I'm really glad it did - it was really interesting. Basically just about the super hero/comic book industry and how it reflected popular culture for the last 75 years.

Shyster wrote:I think there is much more variety and creativity in manga than in comics.

That's a little like saying popular music sucks when all you ever listen to is public radio.

Did you read Lone Wolf and Cub?

did they make those into movies? For some reason I think I have them at home, but never watched...

Yes. I've never seen the movies, but the mangas are very good. It was written by Kazuo Koike, who also wrote Crying Freeman and Lady Snowblood. Lone Wolf and Cub is about a disgraced Samurai turned assassin in the Edo period. Great stuff. And tons of violence.

Idoit40fans wrote:Wait...isn't popular music, by definition, the music that is on public radio?

I'm missing the comparison of manga to public radio. Please be assured that I also read plenty of trashy, low-quality manga, and there is plenty to read. For example, go to Batoto and look up Prison School, which seems to exist in order for the mangaka explore the dividing line between manga and porn.

Idoit40fans wrote:Wait...isn't popular music, by definition, the music that is on public radio?

I'm missing the comparison of manga to public radio. Please be assured that I also read plenty of trashy, low-quality manga, and there is plenty to read. For example, go to Batoto and look up Prison School, which seems to exist in order for the mangaka explore the dividing line between manga and porn.

What about non-superhero comics? Underground comics? European *gasp* comics? South American comics?

Idoit40fans wrote:Wait...isn't popular music, by definition, the music that is on public radio?

I'm missing the comparison of manga to public radio. Please be assured that I also read plenty of trashy, low-quality manga, and there is plenty to read. For example, go to Batoto and look up Prison School, which seems to exist in order for the mangaka explore the dividing line between manga and porn.

What about non-superhero comics? Underground comics? European *gasp* comics? South American comics?

Or Japanese comics? Oh, wait...

I'm sorry; I was a little confused by your analogy. And I think I should have clarified that my statement applied to the main DC/Marvel superhero comics, which are indeed the pop music of the comics world. That doesn't mean that everything else is bad. I had a subscription to Heavy Metal magazine for years, so I certainly got some exposure to Euro comics. For example, one of my favorites was the "Gipsy" series by Enrico Marini and Thierry Smolderen, which Heavy Metal ran in multiple issues from 1995 to 2004.

In fact, I'm sitting here thinking why I no longer have a subscription to Heavy Metal. I think my subscription was up around the same time I moved, and I never got around to renewing. I believe I will have to correct that.

Idoit40fans wrote:Wait...isn't popular music, by definition, the music that is on public radio?

I'm missing the comparison of manga to public radio. Please be assured that I also read plenty of trashy, low-quality manga, and there is plenty to read. For example, go to Batoto and look up Prison School, which seems to exist in order for the mangaka explore the dividing line between manga and porn.

What about non-superhero comics? Underground comics? European *gasp* comics? South American comics?

Or Japanese comics? Oh, wait...

I'm sorry; I was a little confused by your analogy. And I think I should have clarified that my statement applied to the main DC/Marvel superhero comics, which are indeed the pop music of the comics world. That doesn't mean that everything else is bad. I had a subscription to Heavy Metal magazine for years, so I certainly got some exposure to Euro comics. For example, one of my favorites was the "Gipsy" series by Enrico Marini and Thierry Smolderen, which Heavy Metal ran in multiple issues from 1995 to 2004.

In fact, I'm sitting here thinking why I no longer have a subscription to Heavy Metal. I think my subscription was up around the same time I moved, and I never got around to renewing. I believe I will have to correct that.

Heavy Metal was published in the USA? I had no idea. Yeah, I figured that maybe you were referring only to DC/Marvel. Not that there's anything wrong with DC/Marvel.

Gaucho wrote:Heavy Metal was published in the USA? I had no idea. Yeah, I figured that maybe you were referring only to DC/Marvel. Not that there's anything wrong with DC/Marvel.

It may not be the same Heavy Metal you're thinking of. IIRC, the American Heavy Metal is based on a French Magazine with the same or a similar name (something like Metal Hurlant, I think). Back in the 70s, the eventual publisher was in France for business, where he picked up a copy of the French version, and he liked it so much that he got them to license him the concept so he could found an American version. They are two separate magazines, although I understand they have published a lot of the same stuff over the years (with different translations, obviously).

Gaucho wrote:Heavy Metal was published in the USA? I had no idea. Yeah, I figured that maybe you were referring only to DC/Marvel. Not that there's anything wrong with DC/Marvel.

It may not be the same Heavy Metal you're thinking of. IIRC, the American Heavy Metal is based on a French Magazine with the same or a similar name (something like Metal Hurlant, I think). Back in the 70s, the eventual publisher was in France for business, where he picked up a copy of the French version, and he liked it so much that he got them to license him the concept so he could found an American version. They are two separate magazines, although I understand they have published a lot of the same stuff over the years (with different translations, obviously).

Métal Hurlant is what I was thinking of, yes. Moebius, Bilal, Manara, stuff like that.

figured I would post this here. So my friend gave me some comics in digital form and I was wondering if there is a way to read them on my Kindle Fire HD. How its set up is each folder has a comic and then like 20 or so pictures. My laptop is a little small for this and I have to mess with rotating the image and zooming in and stuff, didn't know someone has some thoughts on this.

Just stumbled across this thread. I was a big comics fan in the mid-80s to early 90s. I used to get them shipped from Newbury comics, and then had some pulled at a shop in Oakland (near Pitt's campus, can't remember the name) a couple of times a month. It got so expensive though, so I eventually stopped reading them. I kept most of them, and 90% are Marvel books like Amazing Spiderman, X-men, G.I. Joe (!), Excalibur(!), and some G.I. Combat/Sgt. Rock, and a few Batman issues. I have a graphic novel of Dark Knight somewhere.

After watching Arrow, I got interested in his backstory and discovered the comixology app...yikes is that thing dangerous. Instant access to nearly every comic book available! I got the Green Arrow Year One limited run, which was pretty interesting. I may go back and start with the latest Green Arrow that started in 2011.

I'm not sure about reading on a device, but comic books aren't sold anywhere in a 30 mile range. Which I find incredibly sad, especially when we have trouble getting boys to read ANYTHING, especially in rural anti-intellectual South Carolina. But I digress.

I have read the last two Walking Dead compendiums, taking me up to issue 96 or so. What other great titles have I missed recently? How do you read your comics? E-version single issues/collections or printed singles or collections? Or a mixture?